Dale W. Pittman / Virginia

The Law Office of
Dale W. Pittman, P.C.
The Eliza Spotswood House
112-A West Tabb Street
Petersburg, Virginia 23803-3212
Telephone (804) 861-6000
Facsimile (804) 861-3368
dale@pittmanlawoffice.com

Richmond area attorney Dale Pittman represents Virginia consumers in debt collection harassment and abuse cases under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. He maintains a statewide consumer protection litigation practice based in historic downtown Petersburg, just south of Richmond. He is a 1971 graduate of Hampden-Sydney College and a 1976 graduate of the University of Richmond Law School. As one of the first consumer protection attorneys in Virginia, his litigation of consumer protection cases has resulted in numerous published opinions furthering the rights of victims of consumer credit overreaching and abuse. Opinions from some of his Fair Debt Collections Practices Act cases appear at Creighton v. Emporia Credit Service, Inc., 981 F. Supp. 411 (E.D. Va. 1997); Withers v. Eveland, 988 F. Supp. 942 (E.D. Va. 1997); Morgan v. Credit Adjustment Board, 999 F. Supp. 803 (E.D.Va. 1998); Talbott v. GC Services Limited Partnership, 53 F. Supp. 2d 846 (W.D. Va. 1999), Turner v. Shenandoah Legal Group, et al., 2006 U.S. Dist. Lexis 39341 (E.D. Va. 2006), and Karnette v. Wolpoff & Abramson, L.L.C., 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 53382 (E.D. Va. 2006). Courts in North Carolina and Virginia have certified class actions against collection agencies in cases in which Mr. Pittman represented classes of consumers, including Woodard v. Online Information Servs., 191 F.R.D. 502 (E.D.N.C., Jan. 19, 2000); and Talbott v. GC Services Limited Partnership, 191 F.R.D. 99 (W.D. Va. 2000).

Mr. Pittman has lectured on consumer law for the American Bar Association, Virginia CLE, the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association, the National Association of Consumer Advocates, the National Consumer Law Center, the Naval Justice School, and others. He has contributed to several National Consumer Law Center publications. Mr. Pittman serves on the governing body of the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association, and he Chairs the VTLA’s Consumer Law Section. He is a past President of the Petersburg Bar Association. For six years he served as Virginia’s Eleventh Judicial District’s elected representative to the Council of the Virginia State Bar, the governing body of Virginia’s mandatory bar association. He has served on the faculty of the Virginia State Bar Course on Professionalism, a course on ethics for newly admitted members of the Bar.

Prior to entering private practice in 1996, Mr. Pittman served as General Counsel to Southside Virginia Legal Services in Petersburg for almost twenty years, where he directed a Legal Aid program providing free legal services to the poor in civil cases. He was the 1996 recipient of the Virginia State Bar Legal Aid Award, given annually by the Virginia State Bar to recognize a Legal Aid attorney in Virginia who demonstrates innovation and creativity in advocacy and excellence in service to low-income clients.

In a 2003 article citing Mr. Pittman as one of its “Unsung Heroes,” the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association had this to say:

Without a lot of fanfare, Dale has developed a reputation as a consumer rights champion. Dale has not used his considerable talents as a trial lawyer to obtain the most lucrative cases. Instead, he has built a career taking on those cases others have refused to take. On almost every consumer law issue or project VTLA undertakes, Dale is at the center of it. Richard Railey, who has been a close friend of Dale’s since boyhood, spoke eloquently of Dale:

“For me to say that Dale Pittman is the only person I have ever known who matriculated at Hampden-Sydney College as a good ole boy raised in rural Southside Virginia, and graduated as a liberal Democrat and a law student motivated to study the law, not to better himself, but to be a poverty lawyer, speaks volumes and tells the whole story. After law school, Dale gave of himself unselfishly with all of his ability as a legal aid lawyer for nearly 20 years, where he served the interests of the poor, the ignorant, the powerless and the heretofore unrepresented with extraordinary ability, stamina and passion. Now, he continues to serve consumers in a national practice using his natural ability and the skills he learned from legal aid, fueled by his passion for people victimized by the powerful. In his field of consumer law, he may be the best lawyer around. Beyond any question, Dale is an unsung hero.”

In an opinion awarding attorney’s fees and costs to Pittman in an FDCPA case, one Court, referring to Pittman as “an accomplished public interest attorney,” recently stated that

“Mr. Pittman has represented his client in this case with excellence by thorough fact and legal research, well-written pleadings and the zeal required of an advocate, a conclusion reached as well by other judges in other cases. … (t)he Court is satisfied that but for the few attorneys in central Virginia like Mr. Pittman willing to take cases on behalf of clients such as Mr. Jones, an important public service would go unfulfilled.”

Jones v. Robert Vest, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19026 (E.D. Va. 2000).

The father of five, three boys and two girls, Pittman lives in downtown Petersburg. His wife, Dr. Linda K. Pittman, is Professor of Geography and Religion at Richard Bland College of the College of William and Mary.